Cultural Space Analysis

In our society we can experience different kind of power relations everywhere, in our school perhaps, malls, offices, with barkadas, and even in sports. Everyone experiences it from different places and scenarios but we all have one thing in common regarding the subject matter, experiencing it in our very own home. A house is completely different from a home. A home is composed of people that we are close with, our families. It is where we were nurtured to become our very own person and it is where we can only feel real and abundant love and security. Unlike a house where it is mostly a black space for shelter, a basic necessity as our shelter but empty. A house is never a home without our family.

For this entry, I choose the basic unit of our society where we experience power relation from the very beginning of our life, our family. Of course I’m talking about our family in our home, parents who continually guide us as we grow older. Speaking from personal experience, home is where we get to learn the basic knowledge of how to survive the reality, and our parents is the ultimate figure that teaches us all the things we need to know like values, morals, initiatives, instincts. Of course being the self-proclaimed “professors” of our life, as long as we live under their roof, we are obliged to follow their rules.

Every home has their own laws laid out by parents. It is the responsibility of every child to obey these house rules (curfew, chores, etc) as it is the parents’ responsibility to provide for their children. I am no different from this culture, whereas the parents must be obeyed. It is in our home with our family we engage in power. However every parent’s power is different. My parents for example are not practicing the power of coercion but the power of influence. I got this concept from an article used in my PHILOPE class about the general notion of process philosophy in God’s power towards human beings by Jimmy A. Belita. The article made me realize on what kind of power my parents possess. They are not coercive parents however reamains influential. Even though with silent authority, I still am able to feel the gravity of their power over me as my parents. Whenever they would tell me the do's and don'ts, I respect it and very hesitant to disobey it.

I consider my parents to be strict in terms of going out at night, weekend getaways with friends, and other typical worrisome to parents. Most of the time they rarely allow me to do these things and being matured enough to understand it from their point of view, I understand why they do so. Though rejection does not happen always, there is sometimes a slim chance that they would allow me, and this I think balances my attitude towards my parents authority. It doesn't evoke anger whenever they would reject something I would want, which happens mostly to other children, because I know that they have good reason for it, and mostly making up for it by hanging out and eating out to our favorite restaurants (Of course it would not be cheap, at least we can get something good from it :D).

My point from my example is that even though my parents exercise their power by making decisions for what I want, it never evoke hatred because they use their power on me gently but the gravity of being coercive. I guess this type of power they possess (influential) is much more powerful because they and I know that i would not dissuade them because we created a relationship with respect towards each other, not only because they are "THE PARENTS" but because they are my parents, who loves me and cares for me. Love never lacks in our home.

The type of power relationship I experienced at home with my parents is not hardcore authority/power but influential. By being rational and loving parents that they are, they exert greater influence on me. I believe being love by your own parents would make positive changes in your becoming, philosophically speaking. With their love, guidance and power they enforce on me, I would be forever grateful and promises to return their love and care for the rest of my life.

In closing, my home with my parents is the strong foundation of my becoming. With their love and guidance I would grow for the better. Their love for me makes me not question their authority on me, and everyday I live my respect for them intensifies. Indeed, our home with our family is where the first and basic place we experience power, where we are shaped to fit the reality, a cultural place that starts it all.